The Deuteragonist Never Wins
by teanotes
Summary: Between juggling his title as the first junior to be Student Council Vice President, his family's lack of communication, and keeping the rest of his schoolmates in line for the rest of the school year, Jason Grace came to the universal consensus that high school was the stupidest thing on earth—right after unrequited love.
1. Aeschylus Didn't Go to High School

a/n: originally this was going to be within a single oneshot but i flaked and split it into short multiple chapters, so maybe once i finish i'll just compile everything into one big file. also i decided i had a plot with developable characters after all so haha x10

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There was no greater joyous relief than _not_ being in Reyna Avila Ramirez Arellano's line of fire on the day she decided the world was her enemy.

Jason and Thalia Grace lounged languidly on the terrycloth brown sofa in the Student Council office as Reyna, swathed in curses from three different languages, swept the floor in pure, unadulterated anger.

"This is the _first meeting_, for gods' sakes," she said, and Jason, who's only known her for forever, liked to call this her KILL KILL KILL voice—only, the acronym's always been a bit problematic, so he's kept it to himself. "Do they not realize that this is going to be a reflection of the rest of the school year? I understand if Annabeth and Percy racked up on extracurricular activities, but _this_ should be on top of their priorities. And don't even say a word about 'senioritis', Thalia, _you're_ here, aren't you? I might have expected this from at least one of us, but the sophomores too? Hazel and Frank should _not_ be this late! Is Frank in archery? Thalia's captain! There isn't any practice! This is ridiculous. No one is answering their phones and unless they're dead in a ditch somewhere, _they_ can be on paperwork duty for the rest of the year."

"They'll be here," Jason said, more because of wishful thinking than the actual phone screen in front of him claiming, _be there before 4 I swear_.

It was 4:23.

Although this was not the first time a student council meeting after school had gone awry (refer: the year prior when Luke Castellan had been Student Body President and Charles Beckendorf and Selina Beauregard had insisted on adding locks to the walk-in storage closet within the room for purposes rendered "classified"), but this was also the first time a pair of juniors took the title of Student Body president _and_ vice-president. Annabeth and Percy, who everyone was sure to win, had been on Student Council since they were sophomores. At the end of the last school year, the winning votes came in. And, with their names conquering the ballots, they were supposed to accept their leadership roles. Instead, they gave a stunningly blasé speech along the lines of _We have decided to sideline for our last high school year_ and _We will still support Olympus High as always _and _We plant to select next year's President and Vice as Reyna Ramirez Arellano and Jason Grace, the sophomore class' previous leaders, because we trust that they will be responsible and righteous in their leadership _and _Yeah, Mr. D, we can really do this; Annabeth read the school guidelines, rules, and regulations. In your face!_ and _We'll really miss you, Class of 2014, except you, Luke, thank the gods you're leaving_ and _Next year is going to be a blast, we promise_.

The problem with a promise is that you can't make another promise to not break one.

Senior year was substantially busy enough, so Annabeth's and Percy's chosen roles as class presidents rather than school presidents was still questionable. Once, teeming with worry and feeling nauseous, Jason asked Percy why they hadn't just backed out of Student Council completely.

"Haven't you ever heard of ruling from the shadows?" he had countered.

Jason did not think this was a very clinically sane answer, but let it go because Percy Jackson was not a very clinically sane boy.

On the other hand, the rest of the student council seemed to make sense. As no freshmen were allowed to serve council, the sophomore class presidents were the youngest around. Hazel Levesque and Frank Zhang kept to themselves mostly, and didn't always mesh as easily as with the other upperclassmen (they seemed to like Percy though). Jason thought they were dating. But they did their job just as efficiently as Reyna, which said a lot, and were obviously elected for a reason. They did everything _right_.

Usually, how it went at Olympus, the seven positions of Student Council were two sophomore class presidents, two junior class presidents, one student as school secretary (which had been Thalia winning every consecutive year since she was legible due to no one wanting to run against her), and the two senior class presidents that shared responsibility over their class and the school. This year had been complicated enough, and though it could have been worse,—Annabeth's rule bending was flawless, of course—settling in as school _and_ class presidents took the cake for Uncoolest Job Ever. The work, as Jason predicted, would be back-aching, but he and Reyna were still planning to juggle fall and winter sports into the mess.

He could understand how frustrated Reyna felt when it seemed like no one was putting in the same effort.

A fraction of relief filled Jason when he heard the door knob turn, expecting a windblown Percy, but it flew right back out when it slammed open to a presence completely unrelated to student council.

_"Squeeze yourselves!"_

A Latino boy, whose most pronounced factors were his ears and curly hair, sped swiftly through the lounge and into the other door (no lock! Beckendorf and Selina had the right idea) leading to the tiny storage room where the drama club stashed their more fragile props. Confused and a little shocked, Jason looked to Reyna who looked to Thalia who looked to the door propped open and the boy still rummaging loudly inside.

"Hey! You idiot, don't just barge in like that!" A girl's voice thundered after him. The girl herself lumbered in the room, pretty, flushed, and, well, _pretty_. On anyone else the black pants and bruised, white parka would have been overkill in September, but on her it looked like she stepped out of this season's edition of _Teen Vogue_.

She spotted the three of them just staring, all varying degrees of _what the hell_, and grimaced. Addressing them with eyebrows furrowed in worry, she said, "I am so sorry for him. I take the leash off for _one_ second…um, we're part of the school party planning committee, getting stuff ready for homecoming, so, like, we're not robbers or anything."

The first thing Jason noticed was that she had a slick, velvety voice that dipped and sprung around the room seamlessly, and he wouldn't have minded if she kept talking forever. The second was her eyes, a collage of different colors blended so that pinpointing its exact color was impossible.

Now this—_this_ was trouble in its rawest form.

Panicking, Jason started to say, _Hey, what are you doing here? You could have just asked to come in. My name's_—"Jason."

Damn.

The girl, not knowing what to do with this new and unfamiliar information, raised an eyebrow, arms crossed. Jason's heart skipped multiple beats.

"My name," he offered awkwardly.

"Oh." She nodded slightly in understanding, then grinned as if this was what she had been searching for from the beginning. There were little dimples mirrored on both sides of her mouth. "Piper. We were just leaving. Sorry for the bother."

"It's no problem," Jason said, a little too quickly to be nonchalant. He unconsciously began rubbing the sides of his sneakers against each other. At the corner of his eyes, he saw Thalia glance at him amusedly. _Don't_, Jason would have said, had he been gifted with ESP. _Not a word._

Piper whirled towards the back room, the beads that clung to her braids swinging. She raised volume, yelling, "Leo, I swear to every single god in this vicinity, if you _break_ something—"

"Yeah, that's likely!"

She cringed and turned back to Jason. "He's a moron, and I'm sorry."

"Yo, BQ," a new voice called out from the hallway. It was deep and scratchy, and Jason's brain racked from the familiarity. "Valdez get the goods yet?"

"No," Piper replied, her tone dragged out an underlying 'don't call me that', which impressed Jason only because he's lived with Thalia long enough to identify that much annoyance through monosyllables. "There were still people here."

"Oops." The person, revealed to be a boy the same age as Jason, had a similar build to his and darker hair. He smiled to reveal Colgate-worthy canines. "We've been caught. Abort mission?"

Piper only rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Dylan, this wasn't supposed to be covert. We don't even know if the stuff is here. And if we don't find it, Drew will have to deal without them for now."

"Okay," Dylan said, charmingly throwing a salute. "But she'd throw a fit."

"Looking forward to it," said Piper. She glanced back to the back room where 'Leo' was still attempting to make harmony with cardboard boxes, then seemed to remember she had company. "Right, sorry, this is Dylan. He's part of the committee, too."

"Unfortunately. I mean, it's not unfortunate being with _you_, BQ." Jason tried to stop the bubble of disappointment rising below his chest as Dylan's arm slung itself around Piper, familiar and casual, as if it had been done it times and times before. Suddenly, the name and the face made a match to a title—a varsity member of the school's football team. He even sported the bright, hideous Olympian orangey-purple jersey. Last year, he sat behind Jason in Latin and bugged him for pens all throughout first semester. From that point on, Jason had already decided he sternly disliked running backs.

"Stop calling me that," grumbled Piper.

Dylan Ventus gave Jason and the girls a once-over before serving a curt nod. "You guys juniors, too?"

Reyna and Jason made slight motions of agreement, but Thalia looked thoroughly harassed.

"Senior," she corrected, frowning as if it was someone else's fault she looked perpetually younger than she really was. Honestly, Jason could buy a house if he had been collecting a quarter every time someone mistook him for being oldest. But, even hypothetically, Thalia would probably bulldoze it down.

"Wait," said Piper suddenly, glassy eyes widening. "You two are our President and VP, right? Are we interrupting something? I'm so sorry."

Reyna smiled tightly, all business and professional-like. "Yes. Normally we would mind being intruded during a student council meeting, but we're missing quite a few members right now, so we don't mind you checking for needed items as we wait."

Also read as: I'm already stressed no one's here yet, but yes, of course, feel free to barge in like it's nobody's business and be loud and intrusive all you like.

Also read as: I have to be civil and nice but I am pissed as hell.

Also read as: Die.

Jason stuffed down groan.

Piper and Dylan seemed to catch this frightening undertone and shared a glance, wordlessly conversing.

Then, right on cue, the boy in the storage room cried "A_ha!_" and ran out with a large disco ball double the size of his head.

"Distinguished guests," he crooned, brandishing his find, "I have done it! Bow before me and honor me as your new god."

Dylan slapped his back in approval, making Leo almost lose his hold on the ball from the impact, but Piper examined it hesitantly. The disco ball was clothed in a layer of dirt and grime, seemingly circa the last generation's disco age. "It'll need some cleaning, I guess. Did you find the maroon tarps Drew wanted?"

"No maroons or mauves or reds," confessed Leo, a bit sullen. "Why can't we just buy them?"

"Because we're on a budget and the drama club's stashed them _somewhere_," said Piper.

"They're probably in the teacher's lounge."

Thalia took this opportunity to pull back their conversation to the pressing issue, where they've been stepping a little too close for comfort in student council territory. The kids from the party planning committee—which Jason didn't even know was a _thing_ until two minutes ago—looked at Thalia with the kind of surprise from realizing they had, once again, forgotten their presence.

"There's a linen cupboard where Mrs. Athena keeps cloth and stuff for her hobby. You could check there, except most of the teachers have gone home by now. But if you try, there's a chance you might catch Mrs. A before she leaves," she said, sitting up a little straighter on the couch now that she was the center of attention. A tiara wouldn't have looked out of place on her head.

Everyone had their individual instantaneous reactions to this, Reyna and Jason being the ones to stare at Thalia amazedly. The other three, however, were not as awed by Thalia's unexpected act of kindness.

Leo asked, "Her _hobby?_"

Piper said, "Okay, we'll do that."

Dylan flashed another blinding grin.

"Oh, hold on," Piper stated, a thought occurring to her. "Drew's alone with the other boxes. And the money. My lack of trust in her inclines me to go back."

"I'm going back, too," Dylan tacked on. "I can help with the load. Not for long, though, since I've got practice later."

Piper gave him a strange look that Jason couldn't identify.

"Aw, does that mean I have to go?" Leo whined. "I haven't even been to the lounge before, and I've been here three years!"

"Jason can bring you," Thalia volunteered for him. She ignored Reyna's deathly glare. She also ignored Jason's frantic glance. "It's not like there's much to do here right now, anyway."

"That's sounds so great!" exclaimed Piper, nudging Leo with her elbow. "Leo's directionally impaired. I think the only directions he's memorized are the police station and the North Pole. Which is weird because he belongs to just _one_ of those places."

Jason laughed. Leo did not.

"Bro," addressed Dylan to Jason, though he said it like _bruh_ and Jason was temporarily stunned by this new term of endearment, even though Percy had already thrown it around once or twice. "You don't wanna mess with the twerp. He can plant Molotovs under your pillow and set your casa on fire."

"It's pronounced _casa_, asshat," corrected Leo in happy distain, but not rejecting the pyromanic implications.

"Well, then. That's that. You can go." Reyna leveled them all with a last look of indifference. Inwardly, Jason wanted to reach out to her, because he knew this was difficult and she was honestly doing everything she could. This was something he had always admired in her. With an air of finality, she said to Jason, showing a sliver of her true tired self, "I'll call you once everyone finally shows. But don't you dare desert me, too."

And when he replied "Never", he meant it.


	2. With the Power of Lightning

"Do you really know how to build a Molotov cocktail?" asked Jason, making conversation to ease the air. They were walking to the lounge now, where Jason had been on a few occasions to talk to teachers, taking the winding hallways and complicated floors that any visitors would get lost in—that any student attending could _still_ get lost in.

Leo was a good sport and went along with him, grinning toothily. "By heart. Want me to show you how?"

The image of both of them assembling a bomb as if it were a Lego set swamped his mind and Jason barked a laugh. "I'm good. I don't think it'll be fair to anyone if this school blows up anytime soon. I'd actually like to graduate."

"Domestic terrorism _would_ be a downer in college apps," agreed Leo.

"I can see it now in average white kid-defense media. 'The Misguided Seventeen Year Old Destined for Greatness Led to the Wrong Path by Blistering Teen Arsonist'."

Leo chimed in, "'The Troubled Hispanic Boy with a Record and His Bad Influence on Honor Student.'"

Jason snorted.

As he talked more to the boy next to him, Jason realized how wrong his first impression of him had been. Olympus High School wasn't the biggest school around, but the amount of different classes interchanged and divided throughout the school years made it harder to keep track of all the students. Leo had been taking all customized classes, courses like Intro to Mechanics and The Basics of Engineering, which made Jason feel really small knowing Leo knew what he was going to do in life when Jason did not. Despite his gung-ho attitude about grades and student leadership, all of it was just a ruse to avert attention from his lack of self-identity. It kind of bummed.

"No offense," began Leo as they turned a curve to another hallway. Automatically, Jason prepared himself to be offended. "But I don't really get why a dude like you is in student affairs. Vice president, right? You don't really seem like the law and order kind of guy. Well, I guess I could see you in pajamas and eating ice cream _watching_ midnight marathons of _Law and Order_, which is your business, not mine, but that's not what I mean."

This made Jason laugh again. "I dig the concept _and_ the show, for your information."

"It's just…" It was here that Leo paused. It was probably mean of Jason to be surprised Leo didn't think before he spoke often. "I don't mean to be all assume-y. That'd be stupid. You just get the vibe of someone who could be a little looser, y'know? Only you've been raised opposite than that. You're not exactly a Spartan dictator by nature, like everyone says student council is—well, except Percy Jackson. He's the dude with all the exceptions."

Jason tried not to grin at the Percy part, which was true, but he also found himself shirking away at the non-Spartan part, which was also true. He really needed to give Leo more credit. The kid was scary observant under the impish grin and whirly hair.

"I gotta give you more credit," said Jason. "You are scary observant under the impish grin and whirly hair."

"What can I say? Being impish and whirlish are tell-tale qualities of a vigorous mind."

"I should probably be offended," Jason replied smoothly, "but I get it. I'm not Big Picture material. Not really. If Reyna hadn't asked me to run with her in tenth grade, I never would have even thought of… Thalia's been pretty active in school stuff, too, ever since she was little. My mom never really cared what we did so I guess it was to show her Thalia could get things done without her. And she showed her up real well. For me, I think I've just always been following my sister. I…does that sound right?"

Leo watched him dubiously. "That's not really something I can answer, man. You're the one who knows whether you've got an inferiority complex with females in your life."

"I don't have an inferiority complex!" Jason protested, but he was uncertain.

Sometime during Jason's confession, Leo put on a mask of pity. Jason realized too late that it was empathy. "It's no big deal. Sometimes people suck and the people around them get the brunt of it."

"How do you figure? Nobody's sucking and I'm definitely not getting the brunt of anything."

"It's complicated."

"I don't have a complex."

"You don't have to admit it," said Leo, now a bit wary.

Stricken with the conclusion that Leo had gotten the idea Jason was some kind of emasculated, self-conscious jock boy, he felt a sudden wave of frustration hit him.

"_I do not have a—_" Jason stopped in his tracks, physically. They were already in front of the teacher's lounge, the door as dim and inviting as his own house. He looked at Leo, who tried to hide fiddly fingers in his pockets—either from Jason's sudden rush of misplaced anger or at the fact a looming, detention-throwing teacher might pop out from behind the door at any moment, he could not tell. He hoped it was the teachers.

"Look," began Jason, watching him recede away with more subtlety he imagined Leo could manage. Jason hated yelling. His mom did it, his sister did it, and even his dad did, before he left. For him, anger always led to destruction. So whenever he was upset, he leveled his voice; let no one know anything touched him. It made it seem like he was calm when he was not, and tried to convince himself that maybe he was not at all like his parents. The fact that he nearly blew up because of some kid trying to psychoanalyze him left Jason feeling pretty impotent. "You're the one who asked me. If I wanted to get diagnosed by a shrink, I would have."

"Dude, I didn't mean anything by that. I'm really sorry," Leo said.

He looked like he was going to say something else, but didn't want to rile Jason up any more than he already did. Jason thought this was for the best. A little part of him wondered what he would've said, but before he could start deducing, two identical boys with wicked, upturned mouths burst out of the teacher's lounge in a flurry of chaos.

The Stoll brothers were renowned at the school for their bewitching pranks and rattling personalities, and the student council had a few problems relating to them once or twice. Because both were a year apart, their true golden years began during sophomore year when they became a pair, doomed to end once the oldest graduated. After spotting Jason and Leo two steps away, the two identical brothers stopped mid-stride with hitched breath, flushed faces, and a cat.

A _cat_.

"Nice cat," said Leo awkwardly, as the four tried to register what was happening.

"It is," conceded the younger one, Connor. He was Jason's classmate in a majority of subjects. His brother, Travis, blinked in rapid secession.

Jason had his mouth open to say something, but he couldn't quite find the words to reprimand anyone when they were holding such a fluffy white kitty.

"Her name's Lightning," offered Connor, and Jason sold his soul.

"Can I hold her?" asked Jason, and Leo whipped his head towards him incredulously.

Connor and Travis looked at him like he had just asked if they were into polygamy. But Connor handed him Lightning anyway, gently depositing her in Jason's outstretched hands. Jason held the cat with true grace, and the cat was so small he could carry it on one arm, which he did. Then he turned his attention back to the brothers, who turned up the charm immediately.

"Joe Biden." Travis greeted Jason without sparing a glance at Leo. He was jovial and serene, not caring that they'd just been caught red-handed. "How do you do?"

"How do I do, what?" Jason answered blankly. He could play this game just fine.

Happily reflecting his brother, Connor said, "Oh, Your Grace, I had never thunk you'd be here on this side of the school. After all, this is the building near the _library_. You know, the one with all the books?"

Jason said, "So I've been told."

"If you're wondering why we've just come out of there," tried Connor.

Travis added, "With a cat."

"With a cat," Connor agreed solemnly. "Then you should stop wondering. As far most good-looking among us, I would advise you to—ah, how you say, buzz off."

Leo snickered into his elbow, and Jason felt a tiny bit betrayed.

Finally, Jason just said, "I'm not going to ask. Even though I believe in guilty until proven innocent, I can't force it out of you. You're both just going to get off with a warning, because I'm pretty sure you've already topped the record for most detentions in the first week of school. However, I'm going to have to confiscate the cat. No animals or pets of any kind are allowed on campus grounds."

The Stoll brothers had ranged from elated to outraged as Jason was talking, more appalled by the latter part of his claim.

"What was that, Glasses Grace?" said Connor, eyeballing him.

"_I said_," Jason repeated, bringing in the mewling cat closer to his chest, "I am confiscating the cat."

"You're taking Lightning away?" Travis cried dramatically. Yet his longing gaze fixed on the cat seemed to be genuine, if not a little overdone.

Apparently unaffected by all the attention, the cat yawned and everyone became momentarily fixated by the sight.

"Take care, my child," addressed Connor to Lightning, wiping away a nonexistent teardrop. "I will miss you so. The last thirty-four minutes we have spent together were filled with such joy and tremendous happiness. In your departure, I will find only loss."

"My light, my love, my only dream," said Travis sadly. And that was all before they both ran down the hallway in pure adrenaline. By the time Jason could think to react, they were already turning a corner, successfully performing a disappearing act deserving of an ovation.

They always had a flair for the dramatic and unnecessary. Jason had always thought it was because both boys held a terrible fear of being forgotten, and they did things so that no one would ever forget. But most of the time, Jason just thought they were crazy. It was only inevitable Jason would be hit by the falling debris of Connor and Travis Stoll one day.

"Do you think," started Leo, still staring at the empty blazing trail from whence they left, "I can still go inside the lounge?"

"I doubt Mrs. Athena is there." If she were, the Stolls would've been dead by then. Or, at the very least, scraping gum off the bottoms of desks with their bare hands. "As the head of a couple departments, her schedule's always wishy-washy. You could try again tomorrow. But honestly, I kind of don't want to be here for whatever aftermath happens from the Stolls'… activity."

This amused Leo, because he inquired, "Isn't that your job, though?"

"Don't remind me," said Jason.

The cat in his arms meowed once and stretched its little legs, nails scraping him a bit. Jason had almost forgotten its existence.

"I can't believe you just stole a cat and got away with it," said Leo in awe, also staring at the creature.

"I didn't _steal_ it," denied Jason, scowling a bit. "I _confiscated_ it."

"You stole a cat," Leo said gleefully, ignoring him. "And _her_. The cat's a _she_ named Lightning. Please respect personal pronouns."

"I don't need to call _her_ anything. I'm not keeping her."

"Why not?"

"Why should I?" Jason countered. The cat, Lightning, meowed softly in his arms. "She probably didn't even belong to the Stolls in the first place. I'm going to take her to…who do I call for this? Animal Control?"

"No!" said Leo loudly, hands waving around in protest. "You can't! They'd take her to the pound or something and she'll be put down if she isn't adopted. Lightning will be no more! Lightning will…cease to strike."

Jason asked tiredly, "Have you been thinking about puns this whole time?"

"A little. But please, please, please don't call in anyone," begged the other boy. "Keep her."

"Me? Why can't you do it, if you love the cat so much?"

Leo, whose face had been passionate and earnest, grew shy. He rubbed the base of his neck—another nervous tick. "I couldn't do that. The family I live with has a thing about fur allergies, and, yeah."

_The family I live with_. Not "_my_ family", but "the family I _live with_".

Something in Jason finally clicked, and he proceeded to feel like the biggest jerk in the world.

"Fine," he said in defeat. "I'll keep the cat for now. If it doesn't work out, I'll really call the authorities. Cat authorities." _Cat-thorities?_

Brightened by this news, Leo smiled lopsidedly at Lightning, who now warmed up to being held against Jason and was on the verge of falling asleep.

Then Leo said, "I can't believe you got a cat."

"I can't believe I got a cat," Jason agreed.


	3. Unstuck in the Rut

The truth was, Jason didn't believe in love at first sight. That would imply basing love on appearances, and he didn't think he was _that_ shallow. Sure, he liked Piper because she was pretty and witty and seemed perfect, but he also didn't even know her, or her last name, and she was probably in a relationship as far as he knew. It was just one of those cute-stranger-love people got once in a while, and wouldn't really mean anything a week from then.

So Jason had almost completely gotten rid of the 5-minute instant crush he'd developed right until the moment Piper leaped on him.

Well. It was not so much a leap, and not for the reasons he had hoped.

"My gods," she cried. All the running she did to meet up with Jason and Leo as they headed toward the gym caused a rebel hair strand to stick in her mouth as she spoke. She disregarded it. Jason didn't. "That's a cat!"

"In other news, the sky is blue and Jason's blind," said Leo. He craned his neck behind her towards the courtyard gym entrance where Dylan, the brawns, hulked out to lift heavy-looking cardboard boxes in and out the building to a pickup parked beside it. The beast was a Honda Ridgeline, all black, big, thick, and reeking masculinity—though there were stickers like "Baby on board", "DIE!", and "Gleeson Hedge: cook &amp; baseball/life coach" pasted messily on the bumper. Leo waved at him (Dylan, not the pickup seeing as no one was inside, though he might've been greeting the car too, just because Leo was like that) and he nodded with teenage boy acknowledgement.

"I'm not blind," Jason said, kind of testily, since Piper's presence made him wary and Dylan's felt like a punch in the gut. "The glasses are because I'm nearsighted."

Lightning, to her credit, preened when being petted, and Piper ate it all up. She cooed every time she stroked her fur, and because she was in his arms, Piper bowed her head so close to Jason's; close enough to let him steal glances at her eyelashes and take unintentional whiffs of her scent (vanilla) without coming off as a major total creep. Actually, he could admit he was being pretty creepy, but Jason still felt love bloom for the cat.

"Leo," Piper finally said after she was satisfied fussing over Lightning. "Why do you have a cat? Where're the drapes?"

But Leo just screamed "Stop blaming me for everything!" then sprinted to the Ridgeline.

It felt like his responsibility, so Jason explained the absence of a teacher in the lounge and the mystique of the Stolls. Piper took it all in silent acceptance, but only reacted after Jason said he'd keep the cat.

"That's funny," she commented. A small, secret smile spread on her face.

"What is?"

"Nothing."

"C'mon," prodded Jason, cradling Lightning like a baby, just to see if she'd relent.

It worked, because Piper replied, still grinning, "Jason Grace, VP of Olympus High. Don't you eat kitties for breakfast?"

She said it in such a matter-of-fact way, he had to laugh. "How do you figure?"

"Since freshman year, I kinda got the impression of 'Ice King' from you, y'know?"

"Ice Ki—seriously? Isn't it supposed to be 'Ice Queen'?"

"I like to be gender inclusive. And Ice Queen? I think that's Reyna Arellano," Piper continued, "Is she always that uptight?"

For a second, the resignation in Reyna's face the last time he saw her popped into his mind, and Jason felt protective over his best friend. He defended, "She's been stressed lately. She isn't always like that."

Piper frowned. "Sorry. That came out mean."

She turned around just in time to see Leo knock over several stacked boxes near the gym's open doors. Dylan slapped his back again, and Leo almost toppled over, same as the boxes.

"Idiots," she said, shaking her head, maybe fondly. Then she looked at Lightning, and slowly trailed her eyes towards Jason's. "Thanks again for showing Leo the way. At least now he knows where to go—even though I have so much money to bet that he'll forget. It was really nice of you."

Jason tried not to remind her that it was his sister's insistence on his help, but he wasn't one to deny free praise. "You're welcome. Anything for the, um, party planning committee?"

"_Committee_ sounds like we had a choice in the matter," she grumbled, fumbling with some bracelets on one hand.

"You didn't?"

Her eyes widened in surprise, as if she were caught off guard. "I thought you knew."

Lightning squirmed more in his arms, but Jason ignored her and asked, "Knew what?"

"That 'Olympus High School's Exclusive Party Planning Committee' is our school's glorified version of a year-long detention punishment," explained Piper, occasionally picking at the frays on one leather bracelet. She didn't look him in the eye, and he realized this was something she was ashamed about. "Being in it means that what a person did last year was so bad, Saturday detentions doing homework wouldn't cut it. The principal slapped it together the beginning of the year, which is why there aren't any freshman on board. I mean, I don't really mind it _that_ much, 'cause it was either this or being sent to a school for troublemakers with _Wilderness_ in its name, but it still sucks."

"Really?" he asked, because that was all he could say. He had no idea.

"I thought you knew," she repeated. Piper pet Lightning once more before she added, somewhat slyly, "You can ask, you know."

"Huh?"

Piper's laugh reminded him of bells. "Don't you want to know what I did to get into this much trouble?"

The honest answer would have been that he didn't really think want to think about it. How someone as sweet as Piper or as fun-loving as Leo would be labelled as actual high school delinquents confused Jason extremely. Although he'd only, _only _knew the both of them for about an hour, he couldn't see either as frequent detention-goers. He'd just end up envisioning the both with handkerchief face-masks and pocket knives and the images made him want to clean out his eyes with bleach.

Instead, he complied, asking her, "How?"

"Senior prank," abridged Piper. Jason gave a face of disbelief, to which she replied, "Not mine, obviously. I'm just a junior. But last year, when I was a sophomore, a few seniors who I knew kinda vaguely asked for my help for their senior prank—which was weird, I know, I was a _sophomore_—and since I wanted them to like me and stuff, I agreed. They wanted to move the principal's car from the parking lot to the courtyard and spray paint random crap around the car, just for laughs, but they needed someone to actually _start_ the thing."

Jason thought the "prank" sounded an awful lot like an actual _crime_, and for a second, some faces of the past senior class flickered through his mind (Clarisse, Selina, Beckendorf, Ethan, Luke, _Luke_, _LUKE_) and—oh, yeah, that was _highly_ likely.

"Since I was totally good citizenship-material," she looked at him as if it were a cue for him to laugh, so he did, "I suggested grabbing the keys instead of hot-wiring. Like, less illegal, kind of. Go me, right? The keys were the easy part—I can talk my way through things when I need to, and that was probably why the seniors asked me in the first place. Then the night where things happened and more things happened and there was me with the keys getting the car in ignition and the cops and the lack of seniors present. It was kind of a mess."

"They _ditched_ you?" Even this appalled Jason, despite knowing the prior seniors' mentalities. Leaving an underclassman to deal with the police was a total dick-move, pardon his French, and yet Piper seemed to take all the blame nonchalantly, as if what they had done to her wouldn't have gotten her expelled, let alone sent to juvie. "How was that even remotely okay?"

Piper was probably touched by his anxiety, because she put a hand on his arm (_Oh_) and said, "It's no big deal now, Jason. I got off light compared to what would've happened if I hadn't—well, I got off light. Besides, I shouldn't have accepted their request in the first place. Or get caught, but—technicalities."

He rehashed the information inwardly. "Technicalities."

Lightning meowed for more attention, and both Piper and Jason gladly offered it. Behind them, Dylan had already finished loading boxes into the back of the truck and sat in the driver's seat, slightly dozing off, slightly fooling around with the junk in the glove compartment. Leo, however, was completely out of sight, therefore out of mind.

Mostly because he was curious and wanted a subject change, Jason wondered, "What's in the boxes?"

"Party planning stuff," Piper answered ominously, eyeing Lightning and himself suspiciously. "By the way, aren't you supposed to be back at headquarters?"

He had already forgot. Peering at his watch, it read 5:10, but he hadn't gotten any miraculous messages on his phone that said "Emergency! Percy and Annabeth eloped, which is why they were late to the meeting!" or "Emergency! Hazel and Frank eloped, which is why they were late to the meeting!" or "EMERGENCY! Hazel and Annabeth eloped, which is why they were late to the meeting and why no one can find Percy or Frank!" or even a simple "Meeting cancelled". In the sense that everything was under control, Jason had tons of time to burn, especially since he got the feeling Reyna was still ignited with nondescript hatred and Thalia was draped lazily across the couch like an Ancient Greek with too much time.

"No, I'm good for now," said Jason. Lightning purred just as he said, "Can I check out the party planning stuff? You know, to make sure you darn delinquent kids aren't doing anything _too_ illegal."

For a split second, Piper looked hurt for some reason, but the emotion quickly passed and Jason assumed he imagined it. She smiled and said, "Please. If we were really doing something illegal, you wouldn't ask about it in the first place since you wouldn't know about it."

Piper began heading towards the black Ridgeline with a sway in her walk Jason couldn't ignore, but really wanted to. She then called out Dylan's name, whose head and shoulders emerged from out of the front seat window at the sound of her voice. Jason immediately was reminded of Pavlov's dogs.

"Hey, babe," Dylan drawled. He wore a pair sunglasses even though it was cloudy, but possibly because it was one of the many miscellaneous items he had dug up in Coach Hedge's truck (who Jason had deduced, with no real effort, owned the Ridgeline). Spotting, Jason, Dylan did a small chin-nod-boy thing like he did with Leo earlier, and said, "Sup, VP. Woah, cute kitty. That your lunch?"

Jason was disgruntled. "Why does everyone assume I eat felines for sustenance?"

"'Cause you talk like that," surmised Leo as he did his own magic trick and appeared from below the depths of the truck's underbelly. He was chalked in sand and soot already, even though Jason and Piper had taken their eyes off him for only a few minutes. His hands were greased with oil that might've been the cause of his hairstyle, and the blue jeans he wore was getting worn. "I fixed the leak, Dyl. Try it now?"

Dylan made a show of starting ignition. The engine hummed along with the rest of the car. He whistled. "Sounds beautiful. Wait 'til Coach get's a load of _this_. Drew's been on our asses about us being off-schedule, but it's not our fault if the thing's in need of a tune-up, huh?"

"She just likes to complain. Drew always says we're off-schedule," Leo said, wiping his face with the towel Piper handed to him as she saw him climb out from down under.

"Maybe because we always are," Piper replied, exhausted. "Today we were supposed to have everything done by four-thirty. It's, like, past five right now. I just wanna go home."

The driver's door opened and out came Dylan, just like he walked out of a magazine, all fresh and deathly whitened teeth. "I gotta hit the road, too. Coach said we could leave this all to him to bring to the storage across the campus by himself, so we don't need to wait. I'll leave the keys with Drew." Turning to Piper, he asked, "Need a ride?"

She shook her head. "Didn't you say you had practice? My place is out of the way. I texted my dad earlier. He's coming."

He nodded. Then, without hesitation, he looped his arm around her waist and swooped down to kiss her square on the mouth, and Jason kind of wished he didn't exist in that moment in time. She broke away and kissed Dylan on the cheek. Leo dramatically hid his face behind one of the boxes, and Piper flicked his wrist.

"I'll call you later," she said to her boyfriend. Dylan went inside the building to leave the keys. At his departure, Jason felt small relief.

There were probably a lot of things worse than liking a stranger. Some of them might have been liking a friend or liking someone who was already in a relationship. One thing that most definitely tops the list is liking someone who would only ever notice you if you dangled a cat named Lightning in front of them and possibly offending them by insinuating they were delinquents.

"Meow," said Lightning.

"Well, then," said Leo.

"Well, then," said Jason.

"Well, then," said Piper. She blinked up at him. "Could I get a ride?"

There were worse things.


End file.
